Interview with Douglas T. Breeden--

Interview with Douglas T. Breeden(2)

2007-06-20 16:54:21 [ Big Normal Small ] Xing Zong 　Comment

Xing Zong: Deans tend to say that B-school enrollment is countercyclical. Many prospective MBA students think that the economy is now so good, it is not a good time to return to B-school to get a degree, because when they graduate, the economy might become bad. So in terms of the timing, when do you consider to be a good time to get a degree?

Breeden: This could be excellent timing. The job market is very strong right now and should continue to be strong. Lots of potential students do want to stay in their jobs. Actually we have a high demand for our Cross Continent MBA program, where students use distance learning, while staying on the job. Let's say, people in Silicon Valley want to keep their job, but want to get their MBA. That program is very popular, using our "place and space" approach.

In 2001 and 2002, when the economy was not good, we got a lot of applications because students thought this was a good time to go to business school. Right now the economy is very good. You might say, the applications have been held back. But the economy has been good for four to five years. I think students will only delay their MBA education for a couple of years. Actually our applications recently have been quite high. We are up 20% this year. I think there is a little bit of cycle, but it is not a strong cycle.

Xing Zong: How do you expect Fuqua students to compete globally from Durham?

Breeden: We have a GATE program, a Global Academic Travel Experience program, where a faculty member will take a group of students to China or to India or to Africa. They get involved with the countries there. When they come back, they have to write a report and do a serious analysis of what they learnt.

About 40% of our student body is international. There is tremendous diversity just among our students. We try to take advantage of that by having teams from all over the world. This coming year we have a new Global Institute as well, which is part of our new curriculum. That institute will really teach our students and bring in global knowledge from our student body.

Xing Zong: Success in the career placement office is a common strategy among B-school to keep students happy. What is Fuqua's?

Breeden: Our career placement officers are ranked as one the best in the U.S. Career management is a great strength of Duke's Fuqua School of Business. We have added professional staff in almost every year to make it even stronger. Our students are very interested in getting excellent jobs. We have even recruited several of our own Duke MBAs to help our students find the best jobs and develop ties with the companies. We have improved staff performance in the past few years. This is something we are always working to improve because it is so important to our school and our students.

Xing Zong: How can a dean of Fuqua change the ethical mindset of its students? How well is Fuqua handling ethics in general?

Breeden: It is really challenging to teach ethics. The cultures are so different. When students come here, they already have the foundation of their ethical behaviors. What their parents, friends and jobs taught them is hard to change as they are fundamentals. Sometimes companies want to do good things and face ethical dilemmas. NIKE is a shoe company and wants to employ very poor people in the very poor parts of the world. When they do that, it might be at wages that are very low, although it is much higher than others pay in that country. We want our people to come up with good solutions. We want our students to be aware of these issues and think which types of approaches would be of good value.

Xing Zong: Duke Corporation Education was launched in 2000. although it originated from Fuqua but is still a separate entity. Why separate? Why not, say, include Duke CE as part of Fuqua?

Breeden: First of all, Duke CE and Fuqua combined rank No. 1 in the world of executive education in the Financial Times. Duke CE has been No.1 for 4 straight years. When something is that strong and it grows that dramatically, it becomes quite large. Then our concern is, if it becomes too big, the Fuqua School of Business would just be executive education. It would not have the balance that you need to have. The business school would not be about basic research, but just applied research.

I think it has worked out extremely well, to have Duke CE outside the business school, making it a separate body, but a related body. Some of our faculty teach there, including my successor Blair Sheppard. The revenue continues to grow, from 10 million dollars per year to 20, 30, 40, and now to 50! It has grown five times in the last six years. If it is within Fuqua, then it would be too large. So it is a brilliant solution to have a separate entity as the Fuqua school benefits from that, but it doesn’t stop us from being a business school.

Xing Zong: Is there one thing you really would like to do, but didn't do, and hope your successor Dr. Sheppard will do for Fuqua?

Breeden: I can't think of anything important that we didn't tackle, but I can think of several things that are only half finished. One is the growth of our faculty. We grew from 70 to 95 and we really need to be 110 to 120 now to compete optimally with the middle size schools in the top 10. I hope Dean Sheppard will continue to expand the faculty. Same thing with the Ph.D. program. We have around 80 students and need to be around 100. For the MBA students, I think we are set at about 410 to 425 students. For the global efforts, it takes decades to build what we have built. That’s the thing I am most excited about. I have traveled all over the world and we have a global student body, a global alumni base. Still more needs to be done. I hope Dean Sheppard will continue working on that.

Another issue we have discussed today is whether Fuqua should teach undergraduates. There is a small program not in Fuqua but in sociology called Markets and Management, where they teach business skills, but not here. I talked with the faculty here and they say Duke undergraduates are excellent, we would love to teach them. Duke President Brodhead also likes this idea because he said, our undergraduates should benefit from the excellence of professional schools. So I guess this is one thing Dean Sheppard will probably do.

Xing Zong: Just like Wharton does.

Breeden: Not that big. Wharton is huge. MIT also did. When I was an undergraduate, I received a degree from Sloan School of Management at MIT.

Xing Zong: Dean Breeden, thanks again for your time. You are an excellent dean and have made great contributions to Fuqua!

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